The Communicator Letters policy We welcome letters to the editor about union issues and events relevant to PEF's diverse membership. All letters are subject to editing for space, fairness and good taste. Please keep them brief (up to one page, double-spaced or a maximum of 250 words), and please include your name and phone number for verification. Send letters to: The Communicator Public Employees Federation P.O. Box 12414 Albany, N.Y. 12212-2414 email Denyce Duncan Lacy, Executive Editor The Communicator - Director of Public Relations dduncanlacy@pef.org Sherry Halbrook, Editor of The Communicator- shalbrook@pef.org The Communicator Home Page Thanks for help paying tuition To the Editor: I just wanted to send PEF a word of thanks for the tuition reimbursements for members. I am a registered nurse who wants to go on for my NP (nurse practitioner degree, in adult health at SUNY Stonybrook. I truly appreciate any help. I recently received my BS degree in nursing and started my MS/NP this fall. REBECCA CLUKEY Holbrook State’s double standard showing To the Editor: I would like to add my voice to that of PEF President Roger Benson’s in pointing out the double standard which the state of New York shamelessly promotes in dealing with its own (such as the executive deputy commissioner of the Department of Health, who was fined one week’s pay for accepting gifts from nursing-home operators), while at the same time imposing severe disciplinary measures on PEF members for far less serious offenses — if, indeed, some of them can be considered offenses at all. Earlier this year, I was suspended without pay for three weeks by the state Department of Environmental Conservation for sending two e-mails — one which pointed out to an upper-level manager the plight of PEF members working without a contract (April, 2000); the other, a mildly sarcastic comment about the governor needing to report the honoraria he receives for his frequent extracurricular speeches. The state considered these e-mails the most serious of crimes, warranting a proposed suspension of two months. PEF challenged the suspension and it was reduced by an arbitrator to three weeks. The hypocrisy of the state when it comes to dealing with its own managers’ indiscretions was never made more clear than in the way it dealt with Dennis Whalen, and how it treats PEF members such as myself for far less serious “infractions.” JAMES CLOSE Albany Altruism sends wrong message To the Editor: Her undoubted dedication to her job notwithstanding, a PEF member you recently wrote about has done the rest of us a disservice by continuing to carry a full caseload while cutting back her hours on a VRWS (voluntary reduction in work schedule). This kind of misplaced altruism sends the wrong message to the forces of anti-unionism — to wit, that PEF members are underworked and overpaid, since they are quite capable of doing the same amount of work in fewer hours. That the member was a former shop steward and continues to be active as a union member makes this all the more egregious. Furthermore, your inclusion of these details, without comment, in the October 2001 Communicator suggests that such decisions should be considered laudatory. Should we all emulate her and take less pay while our job demands remain the same? Or, alternatively, should we accept a 20 percent increase in our workloads while our pay remains the same? I think not, and neither should PEF activists like the one you featured. RICHARD STEINBERG Middletown